sociological problems in the hunger games

by BlueHairBlueEyes

I know it's not really a fan fiction but I wanted to know what people thought of it. I'm in sociology in school and had to write this research paper about something sociological and thought why not the hunger games? Please don't post nasty reviews...

1. Chapter 1

the sociological problems in the hunger games

Sociology research paper

April 28th 2014

Abstract

The real meaning behind the hunger games. The odds were never in our favor. The books have truth behind them that most overlook in everyday life. The truth is the hunger games is not just another teen book it could become our future…

Kelsi Wood

Sociology period 5

I bet you didn't know that in the Hunger Games there are multiple sociological problems. I bet you just thought it was another teen book with a girl falling for a cute guy and them living happily ever after. Actually in the Hunger Games there are multiple sociological problems ranging from capital punishment to child labor. One of the main issues I have noticed is that the government in the story controls everything from food to clothes. Our government could eventually become like the government in the books, because there are things that the government in the books and our government are doing now. For example, in the books the Capital which is the government, controls all the resources from food to electronics and news all from the capital. This happens in our government today, because if our government doesn't want us to know something they block it everywhere from the internet and the news. The Hunger Games shows us the major flaws in our government today.

One of the first sociological issues I found in the hunger games was censorship. In both the movie and in the first book before the reaping scene the capital showed a video. The video was about how because the 'rebels' fought against the capital 73 years before; each of the 12 districts had to offer up in tribute 1 girl and 1 boy to fight to the death until only 1 remained and that one person would be showered in wealth to show the capitals generosity and forgiveness1. In the books during the hunger games the 'game makers' who control the environment of the games censor out information about what is really going on; for example, if one group of tributes is plotting against the capital then the game makers would change who they were recording to prevent an uprising. In addition to censoring the games they force the people in the districts to watch not only the reaping but also the hunger games one of the reasons for this is so that the capital can control the districts, and because TV is the only form of information they have. Because of the censorship people are on edge and afraid to speak out.

Another sociological problem in the hunger games is capital punishment. An example of this is in the first book when Katniss and Peeta eat their first meal in the capital they are served by mute servants which are known as an Avox. Being turned into an Avox is a capital punishment for those who have disobeyed the capital2. Another punishment is death which the capital enforces on people who disobeys them. In the first book when the head game maker at the time Seneca Crane was forced to eat poisonous berries because he let both Katniss and Peeta win the 74th Hunger games. Another capital punishment is public floggings and public execution. An example of this is in the second book the capital uses Katniss' and Peeta's wedding to control the rebels by showing parts of the wedding planning and then a public execution or public flogging. An example of this is when the capital punishes Katniss' best friend Gale by publicly flogging him and broadcasting it to all of the districts. An example of public execution is in the second book a man from district 11 put three fingers to his lips and raised them in the air, that is a symbol of respect, love, and luck from district 12; after he had done that peace keepers grabbed him and shot him in front of everybody for showing a sign of the rebellion. Another capital punishment is the reaping and the hunger games. This is showed in the first book when the capital at random chooses two kids from the ages of 12 to 18 years old and send them in an arena to fight to the death. Those kids had nothing to do with the rebellion 74 years before, yet they are forced to fight to the death. During the second book to control the rebellion the president made the head game maker change the envelope for the third quarter quell to say that the two tributes had to be reaped from the current pool of victors, which meant that Katniss and Peeta were sent into the arena again. Capital punishment is how the capital controls the districts into following the rules.

Also sociological problem is community differences, poverty, and child labor. Communities tie in to the books, because in the books the capital has everything handed to them where as the districts that make everything get nothing. An example of this is in the books you see how the Capital people eat all the food they want and then drink a drink to get sick just to eat more food where as in the districts they barely have enough food to eat. The kids of the family are forced to enter their names in the reaping more to get extra food rations so their families can eat. In the beginning of the first book Gale and Katniss are talking about how many times they put their names in the reaping. Gale put his name in 42 times to help feed a family of 5 and Katniss put her name in 20 times to help feed a family of 3. In this society the kids help feed and care for the family more when their parents can't. You see this when Katniss and Gale hunt and enter their names in for tesserae which is for their entries in the reaping just so they can help their mothers after their fathers died in a mine explosion. An example of child labor is in the books when both Katniss and Gale hunt to get food for their families and so they can trade the extra to get the other supplies they need like clothes. Also an example is in district 11 the young kids work in the fields with the adults to help with food and other expenses. In the hunger games there are 13 districts and the capital each district has a specific job that they do. In order of the districts their jobs are: district 1 luxury, district 2 masonry, district 3 technology, district 4 fishing, district 5 power, district 6 transportation, district 7 lumber, district 8 textiles, district 9 grain, district 10 livestock, district 11 agriculture, district 12 mining, and district 13 is nuclear power3. Each district is surround by forest and is separated from the forest by an electric fence4. The districts have no weapons to defend themselves with besides the ones they make or steal. In the hunger games because of the first rebellion the capital bombed district 13, they also during the second rebellion bombed district 12 killing hundreds if not thousands of people. In the books one of the differences between the capital and the districts are clothes, and hygiene. Overall in the hunger games the communities are very different and poverty is shown throughout the districts which leads to child labor.

One of the other sociological issues I found in the hunger games was human rights. In the hunger games nobody has rights; the one person that has ultimate power is the president who makes all the rules and controls everything. Like in today's society the president has executive power, but unlike today's society there isn't two other groups of government to keep the president in check. People have no help at all in the districts; if there were to be an explosion, or fire the capital would not help, but if there was in uprising in process than the capital would step in to stop it. In the book when the rebels tried to take over the capital they ended up doing the same thing to the capital as they were doing to the districts that doesn't make them any better then president Snow. Our society could easily turn into the society in the book if things continue the way they are right now. Our government is taking over all of our rights even if the constitution is supposed to prevent that. An example of this is currently what is going on with the gun laws and health care. Us as a society need to be more aware of what's going on; ignorance is not always bliss.

One of the issues portrayed in the books is alcoholism and drug abuse. In the books Katniss' and Peeta's mentor Haymitch Abernathy is an extreme alcoholic who drinks to dill the pain of what he's been through. To become a mentor you have to have won the hunger games. Haymitch won his hunger games, but since then he has been mentoring and has had to watch all of his tributes die, so too dull the pain of that Haymitch drinks. For drug abuse in the books there is a pair of victors known as the morphlings who have become addicted to morphine to dull their pain. In the hunger games there are multiple scenes where drugs and alcohol are present. Like in today's society drugs and alcoholism are just another part of everyday life and is still looked down upon but are not controlled.

In the hunger games the capital watched everything that goes on in not only the games but also in the districts. An example of this is in the games when the tributes were not only being tracked but also watched over video by not only the game makers but also all of the people of Panem. In the games this affected the tributes because they never knew what was going to happen. In both of the hunger games the game makers controlled everything from weather to the environment, in the 74th hunger games this was seen when the game makers change the environment at the end of the games and also when they used fire to make Katniss change routs in order to make her fight other tributes known as the careers. In that 75th annual hunger games its seen when the game makers made the arena like a clock with every hour another obstacle to kill the tributes, but also when the game makers rotated the cornucopia to try and confuse the tributes once they had figured out the arena. The reason this is a sociological problem is because it messes with the tributes not only physically but also mentally and scars them for life.

The last issue I could find is weapons control. In the hunger games people do not have access to weapons. The only people with access to weapons are peace keepers who use them as a form of punish to keep the peace. The only other places I have seen in the books that would have weapons are district 2 and 7. District 2 is the masonry district, and district 7 is the lumber district the only reasons a district would have weapons is to work, so in that case pretty much all the districts have one from of weapon or another. Like today's society weapons are controlled and regulated by the government. The reason weapons control could be a sociological problem is that the people of the districts have no way to protect themselves and fend for themselves. They rely on the capita for everything. Some of the districts have black markets but the capital knows about all of them and can easily shut them down.

In conclusion the hunger games shows the issues in our government today and if continued how our government could turn out in the future. To those of you that still have doubts about how this could happen, I suggest that you read the hunger games trilogy and focus on what's happening in our society today. Don't just turn a blind eye on what happening in other parts the world and think, "That can't happen to us." Or "That's not our problem". In the book the people were constantly paranoid and never knew what was going happen. So to conclude don't let the government walk all over us and please keep in mind that if you don't want to live in a dictatorship anytime soon that we as a people need to take the government back to the way it was intended to be in the constitution of the United States, not the way it is today.

1 In the video the capital played it showed death and destruction to mentally make the districts fear the capital.

"War. Terrible war. Widows, orphans, a motherless child. This was the uprising that rocked our land. Thirteen districts rebelled against the country that fed them, loved them, protected them. Brother turned on brother until nothing remained. And then came the peace. Hard fought, sorely won. A people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born. But freedom has a cost. When the traitors were defeated we swore as a nation we would never know this treason again. And so it was decreed that each year the various districts of panem would offer up in tribute one young man and woman to fight to death in a pageant of honor, courage and sacrifice. The lone victor bathed in riches would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness. This is how we remember our past. This is how we safeguard our future."

2 The Avox are a group of mute servants that disobeyed the capital. So in return the capital cut out their tongues and force them to work as slaves in the capital.

This is one of the Avox from the movie.

3 Each district has the own seal. Below are the seals of all 13 districts and the capital

4 The districts are all in the United States. Parts of the United States are under water. Below is a map of the districts.

Work Cited

Collins, Suzanne, and Phil Falco. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. London: Scholastic, 2009. Print.

Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.

"Pictures from the Hunger Games on Deviant Art." DeviantART: Where ART Meets Application! N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.

"YouTube Videos from the Hunger Games." YouTube. YouTube, Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.